Scum, which preceded the abolishment of borstals, youth detention centers in the United Kingdom, showed the morally reprehensible conditions facing delinquents to stiff-lipped, Jimmy Savile-adoring audiences of the Thatcher days.
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This power was very rarely used – there were only seven birching cases in borstals in the 10 years to 1936.Cadogan, p. 122. This birching power was available only in England and Wales (not in Scottish borstals).Cadogan, p. 123.
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The commission developed secretariat, establishment and finance branches, as well as an Industries and Stores Division concerned with industries in the prisons and borstals and a Works Division dealing with buildings.
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This set approved schools apart from borstals, a tougher and more enclosed kind of youth prison. The term came into general use in 1933 when approved schools were created out of the earlier "industrial" and earlier "reformatory" schools.Children and Young Persons Act 1933, s.79 ff.
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The act also prevented children working in dangerous trades and prevented them from purchasing cigarettes and entering pubs. The act also prevented children from learning criminal "tricks of the trade" in adult prisons, where children were often sent to serve time if a crime had been committed. Instead the Children's Charter had allocated Borstals. It eventually led to many councils setting up social services and orphanages.
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A Borstal was a type of youth detention centre in the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth. In India, such a detention centre is known as a Borstal school. Borstals were run by HM Prison Service and were intended to reform young people. The word is sometimes used loosely to apply to other kinds of youth institutions and reformatories,"Bradwall Reformatory School (1855–1920)", a local history site.
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Except in Northern Ireland, the only corporal punishment officially available in borstals was the birch for mutiny or assaulting an officer, and this could be imposed only by the visiting magistrates, subject in each case to the personal approval of the Home Secretary, just as in adult prisons.Report of the Departmental Committee on Corporal Punishment (the "Cadogan Report"), Cmnd. 5684, Home Office, 1938, p. 123. Only male inmates over 18 might be so punished.
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From the age of 17 Mitchell was regularly incarcerated in borstals and prisons, mostly for shop-breaking and larceny. During a brief spell of freedom, he fathered a daughter with a girlfriend, but never knew about her. In prison Mitchell was "a thorn in the flesh of authority". His prison terms were characterised by violence against guards and fellow inmates, and he was punished with the birch and the cat o' nine tails.
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Government expenditure was also increased on both sport and the arts. The Mines and Quarries (Tips) Act 1969, passed in response to the Aberfan disaster, made provision for preventing disused tips from endangering members of the public. In 1967, corporal punishment in borstals and prisons was abolished. 7 regional associations were established to develop the arts, and government expenditure on cultural activities rose from £7.7 million in 1964/64 to £15.3 million in 1968/69.
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He committed various crimes from the age of 16 and had served time in borstals and prisons. While living in Southend, he started frequenting the Coleherne pub, a gay pub in Earl's Court. Ireland sought men who liked the passive role and sadomasochism, so he could readily restrain them as they initially believed it was a sexual game. Ireland said he was heterosexual: he had been twice married to women, and that he pretended to be gay only to befriend potential victims.
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Thomas McGrow was born in Lennoxtown, Stirlingshire, to the north of Glasgow and would later spell his name differently. At an early age he became involved in criminal activity, including shoplifting and burglary during the early 1960s. Although in and out of approved schools and Borstals during his teenage years, he was involved in setting up the small Bar-L team, based around the Barlanark area of Glasgow and specializing in armed robbery. He participated in the gang's post office raids throughout Scotland, eventually becoming one of the most wanted criminals in the country.
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Amongst the island's last inhabitants were farmer Samuel Spratt, who died in 1898, and his widow Jane Spratt, who died on the island in 1910 at the age of 98, having lived there for seventy years. In the 1940s and 1950s, having been uninhabited for several decades, the island was used as a summer-camp venue for boys and girls from Industrial Schools and borstals such as the Malone Training School in Belfast. In recent years the island has been used by the nearby Quoile Yacht Club for an annual "Gore's Island Race".
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Borstal institutions were originally designed to offer education, regular work and discipline, though one commentator has claimed that "more often than not they were breeding grounds for bullies and psychopaths."Bernard O'Mahoney, The A–Z of Law and Disorder, July 2006. The Criminal Justice Act 1982 officially abolished the borstal system in the UK, introducing youth custody centres instead. As society had changed the system was then already outdated especially since the late 1960s and early 1970s, with many borstals being closed and replaced with institutions called Detention Centres and, from 1972, also with Community Service Order sentences.
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Throughout his tenure at the Home Office, Joynson-Hicks was involved in the reform of the penal system – in particular, the Borstals and the introduction of a legal requirement for all courts to have a probation officer. He made a point of visiting all the prisons in the country, and was often dismayed by what he found there.Taylor, pp. 186–189 He made a concerted effort to improve the conditions of the prisons under his jurisdiction, and earned a compliment from persistent offender and night-club owner Kate Meyrick, who noted in her memoirs that prisons had improved considerably thanks to his efforts.
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Sir Alexander Henry Paterson MC (20 November 1884 - 7 November 1947), known to his friends as Alec Paterson, was a British penologist who, as Commissioner of Prisons, introduced reforms that would provide a humane regime in penal institutions and encourage rehabilitation among inmates. He was the main force behind the development of Borstals and gained an international reputation as a great prison reformer. A quote by Sir Alexander Paterson engraved in the stone wall within the Peace Chapel of the International Peace Garden (in Manitoba Canada and North Dakota, USA). Paterson was born in Bowdon, near Altrincham, Cheshire.
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Spurr joined the Prison Service in 1983, the same year that borstals were abolished, initially as a prison officer in HMP Leeds. He then moved to HMP Stanford Hill to begin training as an Assistant Governor after a year. Following the completion of his training he transferred to HMP Swaleside, before becoming Deputy Governor of HMYOI Aylesbury and then Governing Governor of the same establishment in 1993. His subsequent career included posts of Governing Governor at Wayland and Norwich prisons, Area Manager of Eastern Region, and various posts in HQ, before becoming Deputy Director General of the Prison Service in 2006.
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The Probation Act 1907 established a probation service to provide supervision within the community for young offenders as an alternative to prison.Britain, 1846–1919 by Jocelyn Hunt In 1908, the Children and Young Persons Act 1908 formed part of the "Children's Charter" which imposed punishments for those neglecting children. It became illegal to sell children tobacco, alcohol and fireworks or to send children begging. Juvenile courts and borstals were created instead for young offenders so they did not have to stand in adult courts and go to adult prisons for most offences. The Education (Scotland) Act 1908 enforced medical inspection, free books and travel, free meals and clothing grants, and some bursaries.
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Since Gilbert and Sullivan used the phrase in The Mikado, "short, sharp shock" has been used in political discourse in the UK.Green, Edward. "Ballads, songs and speeches", BBC News, 20 September 2004, accessed 30 September 2009 The phrase met renewed popularity with respect to government policy on young offenders pursued by the Conservative government of 1979–1990 under Margaret Thatcher,"Tories on Young Criminals 1984", Interview of John Wheeler on TV AM, uploaded to YouTube on 14 August 2011, accessed 24 February 2015 having appeared in the 1979 Conservative Policy manifesto, which promised that the party would "experiment with a tougher regime as a short, sharp shock for young criminals"."Conservative General Election Manifesto 1979", Margaret Thatcher Foundation, 11 April 1979, accessed 24 February 2015 These policies led to the enactment of the Criminal Justice Acts of 1982 and 1988 which, among other reforms, replaced borstals with the youth detention centres in place today.Grimwood, Gabrielle Garton and Pat Strickland.
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